1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to illuminated container holders. More specifically, the present invention relates to illuminated beverage container holders for displaying messages and providing enjoyment and entertainment to users and spectators.
2. The Relevant Art
Beverages have led the beverage industry to develop a large variety of beverage accessories, and therefore, containers, including mugs and tumblers for beverages, are available in the industry and some include illumination and illuminated messages, designs, symbols, trademarks, patterns and the like. Beverage container holders have become a common item available in a large variety of configurations. They may be solely for holding a beverage container, or they may also be used to insulate the associated beverage and its beverage container from the outside environment.
Decorated containers have also become a common item. Decorated containers have been used for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years to identify the contents of a container, the manufacturer of the contents, the manufacturer of the container itself, and the owner of the container, as well as to make political, social, and artistic statements. While the styles of decoration have evolved over time, however, the manner of decorating containers has changed little. Specifically, the decoration has always involved either the shape of the container, painting, or printing on the side of the container. Little has been done, from the standpoint of technology, to improve upon the ancient decorating techniques.
Previous decorating techniques are no longer adequate. Unlike past times, in which a decorated container stood out. The modern world is saturated with decoration, and a decorated container no longer captures the attention it once did, no matter how artistic or clever the decoration. Supermarkets display thousands of containers, all designed to grab the attention of shoppers, while ordinary household items such as mugs and glasses can be easily manufactured to resemble the greatest artworks of the past.
While it has previously been proposed to use bulbs, light emitting diodes, and chemiluminescence, the adaptation to these ideas has changed the simple nature of a mug or container holder into a complex design with numerous pieces, circuits, and close tolerances, thus increasing manufacturing costs, and quite often, hurting the functionality of the container holder.
Accordingly, there exists in the art a need to resolve one or more of the problems heretofore mentioned as well as others not detailed herein.